Soldier
by Nalet
Summary: Alex's eavesdropping reveals a lot more than she though it would.


After Mason tried to trick Alex with fake parents, he had no choice, really, but to introduce her to his real ones. He led Alex and Harper through the sewer, into his home. When they walked in, Mason was met with a surprise.

"Remus?" He asked.

A tall man in old patched robes turned to meet the young werewolf and his companions.

"I didn't expect to see you here." Mason said, surprised.

"Well, I just came to make a quick visit." The man explained. He took note of Alex and Harper and asked if he could speak with Mason alone. Mason and Remus seemed to have an unsaid understanding, and Mason nodded.

"Sorry, this'll only take a moment." He said to Alex before walking off with Remus.

Once they were out of ear shot Alex pulled out her wand and cast a spell so she could hear their conversation better.

"What are you doing?" Harper asked.

"Pay back for lying to me." She answered, and proceeded to listen to her boyfriend's conversation.

"What is it?" Mason asked in a much more serious tone than before.

"Sirius is dead." Remus answered, also much more serious.

Alex gasped quietly when she heard this. She didn't know what she expected, but it wasn't that.

Mason looked down at his feet for a moment before asking, "Who killed him?"

"Bellatrix LeStrange." Remus answered matter-of-factly.

Mason seemed to relax a bit at this news, but not entirely "And what of my uncle?" He asked.

"He broke out along with LeStrange and several other death eaters."

"Damn." Mason whispered under his breath. He looked guilty, almost as if he were the one who broke them out.

Remus seemed to understand this guilt even though Alex was completely clueless. "Mason, he is not your responsibility. We can fight him, you don't have to."

"But I could at least do something rather than just hide here like a coward."

"You are not a coward."

"How can you say that? How can you risk your life everyday , while I just hide here having a normal life, and say I am not a coward?" Mason looked up at the man, daring him to disagree.

"Well, you did move to America. I'd say that was a very brave choice." Remus joked.

This seemed to lighten Mason's mood a little as he said, "yeah they have all kinds of backwards laws here. Only wizards are allowed to perform magic and even then only one person per family is allowed to keep their powers."

Alex didn't quite understand the first part of that statement. She had always thought that the only reason wizards were the only ones to use magic was because they were the only ones who could. She began to wonder if Mason, or and other non-wizard people she knew were capable of performing magic and they just weren't allowed.

"I imagine everyone's a lot harder on you here than back home."

"They're American, I'm a werewolf, and the nephew and former soldier of Fenrir Greyback. Of course they're harder on me."

Alex had a look of sadness on her face that Harper had never seen before. She had no idea about any of this. She knew that Rootie Tootie guy never liked Mason, but she assumed that was something personal. The thing that was hardest for her to wrap her head around though, was that Mason said he was a soldier. She could never imagine him fight the way a soldier would. Sure, she's seen him fight before, but never take orders or fight in a specific way like a soldier would.

"What's wrong? What are they talking about?" Harper asked when she saw the distraught expression on her friend's face. Alex stayed silent though. She looked up and saw another man walking up to her boyfriend and Remus.

"What are you doing here?" That man asked Remus in a threatening tone.

He turned to face the man, trying to keep calm. "I thought Mason should know about what happened to Sirius." Remus answered.

"You will not drag my son back into this." The man growled.

"I am not asking your son to fight. I don't want him to have any part in this more than he already does." Remus explained.

"Leave. I don't want to see you again unless it's to say that this nonsense is over.

Remus glared at the man for a second before apparating elsewhere.

The man turned to face Mason. "I told you that you are to have no part in this."

"But if I can make things right, then I should." Mason argued.

"Not if it means you could die."

"But if it helps, does it matter?"

Mason's father stayed silent at that, and Alex burst into tears. It broke her heart to think that Mason could so easily talk about giving his life up like that. A few more moments of silence passed before Mason's father finally looked up and said, "We'll discuss this later. For now you should go to your girlfriend, she seems to have heard all of this."

Alex looked up, shocked to hear that she had been found out. Mason looked up at her as well. Her face was covered in tears. It pained him to see her so sad. He walked up and pulled her into a comforting hug. For a moment it was just the two of them in each other's warmth, but Alex was still saddened by what she had just heard.

She cried into his shoulder. It was the first time she hated how muscular it was, because now she knew that it wasn't from any kind of work out of running thing he did. It was because he had fought. It was then that small things she'd never given much thought to started making sense. He was always jumpy. Alex would take advantage of this and sneak up behind him to give him a good scare, but now she knew why he was jumpy and it was no longer funny. Some of the scars she had noticed before also made sense now, and she hated it. She hated everything that she had learned today, but she couldn't forget the last thing she heard him say. Every time she thought back to it, she cried some more. She never imagined she'd hear anything like that from him, and she never wants to hear it again.

"Of course it matters." She whispered so quietly that if he weren't right there holding her, he never would have heard it.

He held her tighter in his arms, and silently shed a few tears of his own.


End file.
